Seventeen Lyrics Of Li Po

One of the earliest of Harry Partch's compostions that still survives is this set of seventeen pieces composed between 1931 and 1933. The pieces are not "sung" so much as "intoned," or spoken in tones. The vocal performance is accompanied by an Adapted Viola, one of Partch's personally invented instruments, made from a cello neck grafted onto a viola body, with a flattened bridge to allow three strings to sound simultaneously.

The first recording of all seventeen pieces was done on July 15, 1995, using a tenor violin especially adapted to fill the role of Partch's Adapted Viola, and it was released on the Tzadik label. The seventeen poems set to music in this recording are as follows: